Cutting and folding machine.



H. M. BARBER CUTTING AND FULDING MACHINE.

APPLICATION FILED MAY 6, I9I5.

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H v a WWW H. M. BARBER.

CUTTING AND FOLDING MACHINE.

APPLICATION FILED MAY 5. I915- ]lfiflLT/Y', Patented. Feb. 6, 1917.

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APPLICATION FILED MAY 6. 1915.

gPatented Feb. 6, 1917.

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H. M. BARBER. CUTTING AND FOLDING MACHINE.

APPLICATION FILED MAY 6. I915.

Patented 1m). 6,1917

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HOWD M. BARBER, 01F STUIUINGTUN, CONNECTICUT, ASSIGN OR T0 (3. B. COTTEETL ft SONS COMPY, OF NEW YORK, N. Y., A CORPORATIUN 01E DELAWARE.

CUTTING FOLDING- CHHt'E.

fipeeilflwtion of Letters Patent.

Patented nee. e, rare.

Application filed May 6, 1915. Serial No. 26,422.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, HOWARD M. BARBER, a citizen of the United States, and resident of Stonington, in the county of New London and State of Connecticut, have invented a new and useful Improvement in Cutting and Folding Machines, of which the following is a specification.

In folding machines of the character herein shown and described in which a collecting cylinder is used with a circumference equal to the length of the sheets to be folded, the common way of operating the mechanism is to cause the leading edge of the first sheet to be seized by grippers carried by the said collecting cylinder before the sheet is severed from the web, while the leading edge of the second sheet is left free, the fold being imparted to both sheets just before the second sheet of the collection is cut from the web. This operation makes it necessary for-the first sheet when being folded to be pulled up from its back edge and the second sheet to be pulled up from its front edge. This mechanism works very satisfactorily on fairly strong paper with a good surface and uniform thickness, but on light weight stock or stock of varying thickness, the fold is not uniform and the sheets are frequently torn along the line of thefold due to the pulling up of the first sheet and the pulling back of the second sheet, as above explained. This 7 also necessarily pulls the sheets out of register.

The object of this invention is to overcome the defects above enumerated by providing means for holding the sheets in register during the folding operation, and more particularly to the provision of independent means for holding the sheets or groups of sheets in register by their back edges during the folding operation, leaving their front edges free to bepulled back sufficiently to give the paper the required length for male ing the fold.

The machine shown and described herein is arranged for cutting sheets or groups of Figure 1 represents in side elevation, so

-much of a cutting andfolding machine as includes my invention.

Fig. 2 is a detail section at the end of the collecting cylinder.

Fig. 3 is a horizontal section taken in the plane of the line A-A of Fig. 1.

Fig. 4 is a vertical section taken in the plane of the line lBB of Fig. 3.

Fig. 5 is a diagrammatic section taken in the plane of the line CC of Fig. 3, and

Fig. 6 is a transverse section through the collecting cylinder in another plane from Fig. 5. A

A pair of coacting rotary cutters 1, 2, have their shafts 3, 4, suitably mounted in the frame 5 of the machine. A pair of coacting feed pulleys 6, 7 are located below the rotary cutters and suitable guides 8, 9, are interposed between the rotary cutters and feed pulleys. The folding cylinders 10, 11, have their shafts 12, 13, suitably mounted in the frame 5. The cylinder 10 is provided with a folding blade 14 and the cylinder 11 with folding jaws 15, arranged to coact with the blade 14, in the present instance, every two revolutions of the cylinder 10, the said cylinder 10 acting as a collecting cylinder. Guides 16, 17, are interposed between the feed pulleys 6, 7, and the folding cylinders 10, 11.

The cylinder 10 is provided with two sets of grippers arranged on the same shaft 18, one set of grippers 19 being fixed on said shaft to rock therewith and the other set of grippers 20 being loosely mounted on said shaft and independently operated from a cross shaft 21, in the present instance, through a pin and slot connection 22, 23, between the arms 24, 25, carried by said'roek shaft 21, and grippers'20, respectively.

The web may be fed to the rotary cutters 1, 2, over a roller 26, by tape carriers 27. The shaft 28 of the pair of feed pulleys 6, is mounted in fixed bearings in the frame 5. The shaft 29 of the feed pulleys 7, is mount ed in arms 30 carried by the arms 31 of a rock shaft 32 mounted in the frame 5. The feed pulleys 7 are pressed into engagement with the feed pulleys 6, by springs 33, the tension of which may be adjusted by a screw 34 mounted in a suitable bracket arm 35 fixed to the rock shaft 32. This rock shaft 32 is provided with an adjusting arm 36 having a spring pressed latch 37 arranged -to enter one hole 38 in the frame for holding the pulleys 7 in their operative position, and another hole 39 in the frame for holding the pulleys 7 in their inoperative position. 4

The combined folding and collectingcylinder 10 is provided with margmal users 40 which are engaged by pulleys 41, the shaft 42 of which is mounted in the arms 43 of a rock shaft 44. These pulleys 41 are pressed against the marginal risers 40 by means of springs 45 which pulleys may be adjusted by nuts 46 bearing-against brack-- ets 47 carried by the cross bar 48 of the frame 5.

The shaft 18 on which the grippers 19 are fixedly mounted and the grippers 20 are loosely mounted, is provided at the far end of the cylinder 10 with an arm 49 having a truck roller 50 which is arranged in pos'ition to engage a movable cam 51. This cam 51 is fast to a gear 52 which is driven at one-half the angular speed of the cylinder 10 through the gears 53, 54, 55. This movable cam 51 is arranged to open both sets of grippers 19, 20, for receivlng the advance edge of the first sheet and it also operates to open both sets of grippers 19, 20 to release the advance edges of a collected group of two sheets at a time of the folding operation. The operation of theset of grippers 20 from the shaft 18 is provided through the engagement of the arm- 56, fixed to the shaft 18, with the arm 57 fixed to the shaft 21. The shaft 21 is independently rocked for opening the set of grippers 20 for receiving the advance edge of the second sheet by providing the shaft 21 with an arm 58 on the near end of the cylinder 10, which arm has a truck roller 59 which is operated by a fixed cam 60.

A gear 61 on the shaft 12 of the cylinder 10 meshes with a gear 62 on the shaft 42 of the rollers 41, and with a gear 63 on the shaft 13 of the folding cylinder 11. A gear 64 meshes with a gear 63 and with a gear 65 on the rotary cutter shaft 3. A gear 66 on this rotary cutter shaft meshes with a gear 67 which in turn meshes with a gear 68 on the shaft 28 of the feed pulleys 6. A gear 69 on the shaft 29 of the feed pulleys 7 meshes with the said gear 68. The feed roll 26 and tape carrier 27 are driven from the gear 65 through the gears 70, 71, 72, 73.

Box cams 74, 75, areprovided for controlling the floating of the folding blade 14 and folding jaws 15, cams 76, 77, being provided for controlling the opening of the folding jaws for'the folding operation and for delivering the folded product to any suitable oint by means of the endless tape carriers 78, 79.

In operation, the web as it comes from the press, is fed by the roll 26 and tape of grippers 20 are opened by the cam 60 for receiving the leading edge'of the second sheet of the collection. As the two sheets are folded off from the cylinder 10 to the cylinder 11, both sets .of grippers 19, 20 are opened to release the advance edges of the tw sheets. In the meantime the two sheets are held in register, the outer end of the first sheet between the pulleys41 and the marginal risers 40 on the cylinder 10 and the tail end of the second sheet between'the feed pulleys 6 and 7. This will cause the slack required for thefolding operation to be provided by the pulling back of both of the sheets from their front edges.

By this means, it will be seen, that both sheets of the collection are held absolutely in register during the folding operation with 'no tendency whatever to tear the same along the fold.

While I have shown and described the mechanism as used in connection with a single web, it is obvious that a plurality of webs may be acted upon and that groups of sheets may be cut and collected instead of single sheets if so desired.

Claims to the gripper mechanism are presented in my divisional application filed October 16, 1915, Serial No. 56251.

It is evident that various changes may be resorted to. in the construction, form and I arrangement of-the various parts without departing from the spirit and scope of my invention, and hence I do not wish to limit myself strictly to the construction herein shown and described, but

What I claim is:

1. In a machine of the character described, shcetfolding means and independent means engagin each of a plurality of sheets for holding t e sheets in register during the folding operation.

2. In a machine of the character de scribed, sheet folding means and independent means engaging the back edges of each of a plurality of sheets for holding the sheets in register during the folding operation, leaving their front edges free to be pulled back by said folding operation. I

3. In a machine of the character described, sheet folding means and independent means engaging each of two sheets or groups of sheets for holding them in register during the folding operation.

4. In a machine of the character described, sheet folding means and inde endent means engaging the back edges o two tamer? sheets or groups of sheets for holding the sheets in register during the folding operation, leaving their front edges free to be pulled back by said folding operation.

5. In a machine of the character described, sheet folding means, sheet collecting means, means for engaging the advance edges of the sheets and releasing them before the folding operation, and means for holding the sheets in register by their back edges during the folding operation.

6. In a machine of the character described, sheet folding means, sheet collecting means, means for engaging the advance edges of the sheets and releasing them before the folding operation, and independent means engaging the back edge of each of the sheets for holding the sheet-s in register during the folding operation.

7. In a machine of the character described, sheet folding means, sheet collecting means, means for engaging the advance edges of tWo sheets or groups of sheets and releasing them before the folding operation and independent means engaging the back edgesof the two sheets or groups of sheets for holding the sheets in register during the folding operation.

In testimony, that I claim the foregoing as my invention, I have signed my name this fourth day of May A. D., 1915.

HOWARD M. BARBER. 

